Newsletters

Abberley Parochial Primary Parent Newsletter 

Newsletter - 27.01.23

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Yesterday's performance at the Young Voices 2023 concert was inspirational. There is something wonderfully uplifting about hearing six thousand children singing their hearts out and enjoying the entertainment and connection that comes from working together. We hope that those who attended all felt uplifted. My thanks to Mrs Gregory for putting the effort into organising this each year. 

I was reminded of the power that music has on our emotions and how it can be transformational in changing our mood. 

Our school council met on Wednesday afternoon. It was excellent to hear all of the positive aspects reported on the school, but also the ideas they have to develop and improve the school further. Thank you to those who had shared ideas and engage in conversations with their children.

One key area they highlighted was having more to do at lunchtimes. Mrs Shelley and I are going to work with the playleaders and staff to look at ways to make lunchtimes more positive by having a greater range of activities other than sport available. This might include music to dance to or bubbles chalk, to name a few of the early suggestions, but we are open to more ideas. 

Yours sincerely,

Joel Turvey


Parents' evening

This is scheduled for 15th and 16th February. This should now be visible to you in parent portal. This can be accessed via the following link: https://www.abberley.worcs.sch.uk/parentportal/?redirect=parents-evening  using the same login details as in the autumn term or via the school app as below. 

If you have forgotten your login details, please e-mail the office and we can issue a password reset.

If further problems persist, please call us on Monday or early next week or speak with Mr Turvey on the gate and we will book an appointment for you. 

School app

If you have not already done so, please download our school app. It is called schoolnews. Once you have entered the school details, you will be able to access the newsletters, news feed and calendar. If you log in using the same details as you have done for parents' evening, you will also see all the communication which has come through either via text message or e-mail. 

More details relating to both of these can be found here: https://www.abberley.worcs.sch.uk/parent-portal-info


27 Jan 2023
Celebration Assembly
Celebration Assembly 27th January
Read more
27 Jan 2023
PSHE Dreams &Goals
This week, Years 1&2 have been learning how to work well with a partner and to celebrate achievement with their partner.
Read more
26 Jan 2023
Pronto Pizza!
Great cookery skills from Reception.
Read more
26 Jan 2023
There's always learning to be done
At Abberley, we've never finished learning. During our training meeting yesterday, Miss Harvey shared strategies on spaced retrieval.
Read more
26 Jan 2023
Rehearsal ready!
Y5&6 are in their seats ready for an afternoon of rehearsals before their grand performance tonight! They are very excited and can't wait to see you all in the audience later. Remember to give us a big wave and cheer!
Read more
25 Jan 2023
Kitchen roll under investigation!
After careful planning last week, Merlins carried out their investigation into the absorbency of a variety of kitchen rolls in science today. We await their conclusions with bated breath!
Read more

Year 6 English SATs booster
3:30pm – 4:10pm
30
January
Year 6 maths SATs booster
3:30pm – 4:10pm
02
February
Year 6 English SATs booster
3:30pm – 4:10pm
06
February
Year 5 & 6 Lacrosse tournament (by invitation)
3:45pm – 5:30pm
06
February
Year 6 maths SATs booster
3:30pm – 4:10pm
09
February
Year 6 English SATs booster
3:30pm – 4:10pm
13
February
Year 1 & 2 mini Olympics at The Chantry (by invitation)
3:45pm – 5:30pm
13
February
Rags to Riches collection
All Day
14
February
Scholastic book fair
All Day
From 15 Feb until 17 Feb
15
February
Parent's evening
4:00pm – 7:00pm
15
February
Parent's evening
4:00pm – 7:00pm
16
February
Half-term
All Day
From 18 Feb until 26 Feb
18
February
Year 6 English SATs booster
3:30pm – 4:10pm
20
February
Year 6 maths SATs booster
3:30pm – 4:10pm
23
February
Year 6 English SATs booster
3:30pm – 4:10pm
27
February

Wrens

Ciao! 

This week the Wrens have been visiting Italy with Emma Jane. We learnt about the city of Venice where there are canals instead of roads and everyone travels by boat. Reception imagined they were going to a Venetian masked ball and made some fantastic masks.  Our role play turned into a pizza shop and we designed our own pizzas. Later in the week Reception turned their hand to making real pizzas. We also created some boats in the junk modelling area to sail on the canals of Venice. 

Year 1 enjoyed the story "The Fabulous Lost and Found" in which a little mouse visits Mr and Mrs Frog at the Lost and Found shop to find his missing hat.  The mouse could only speak Italian so we learnt some Italian words along the way. Later in the week we created our own character to visit the Lost and Found shop and wrote the next part of the story. The children had some fantastic creative ideas and we really enjoyed reading their stories. 

We have all enjoyed learning gymnastics in PE over the past few weeks. We have learnt different methods of travelling and balancing and that it is important to stretch and point our bodies to look like gymnasts.

Buon fine settimana. I wonder where we will be off to with Emma Jane next week!

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Skylarks

In maths, we have continued our work on shape and looked at how to draw shapes with a ruler, making sure we have straight lines and equal sides - if they're needed. We created pictures of houses with different shapes; triangle for the roof, square for the house, rectangle for the door. We have also been counting the number of vertices on shapes and this usually matches with the number of sides a 2d shape has. We have investigated how many lines of symmetry you can find in different shapes.  

In English, we have been writing sentences with conjunctions in the middle of them. For example, 'The little old lady was cross.' can be turned into a much more exciting sentence 'The little old lady was cross BECAUSE all of the animals had messed up her house.' We have then moved on to planning that 2 more animals enter the house and get up to mischief. These lines have to rhyme - it's been a tricky task but we're sure the stories will turn out brilliantly. 

In art, we have carried on exploring water colour alongside other different materials. What does it look like with crayon added on top? How about black pen? The children have been left to explore their artistic inspirations and using the different pens and pencils to make them more life like. 

In PSHE, we have been learning the importance of working together and this week we had to design a 'welly' together and decide upon a common goal that we could both achieve. 

In geography, we have been imaging that we could fly to any destination in the world (and travelling there by the aid of Google Maps). We have planned the routes we need to take. Parents watch out, you could be in for an expensive summer holiday this year!

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Kingfishers

This week in English, we have been focusing on chapter 2 of The Iron Man. At the beginning of the week, the children used their listening skills to sketch what was happening as I read to them. They then annotated their sketches using quotes from the book and labelled the linguistic features, such as similes and personification. We also began to prepare for our next piece of extended writing which is a diary entry. We looked at how we can use adverbial phrases to tell the reader more information and sequence events. We also looked at features of a diary entry in preparation for writing our own next week. 

In maths, Year 3 looked at comparing statements and solving related calculations. Year 4s learnt how to multiply 3 numbers accurately and solve problems using efficient multiplication. Both year groups explored factor pairs using factor rainbows to find all the pairs. The whole class also began to multiply 2-digit numbers by 1-digit using column multiplication and place value counters for those who preferred a more visual method.

In PSHE this week, the children began a three week project. In teams over the next few weeks the children have the task to design a garden for someone who is facing a challenge. Their challenge may be that they are visually impaired, in a wheelchair or are elderly with little mobility. In their teams they began to collate ideas for what they feel their person would need and want in their garden. They will begin to draw and design this next week, planning the grand opening of their garden and designing posters showcasing their designs. They will also have the added element of a budget and having to use a cost list to stay in budget.

In science this week, the children investigated how sound can travel. They discussed whether sound can travel through solids, liquids and gases. They then did a knocking experiment with the table to test their suggestions out. Afterwards, they made string telephones in pairs and began to plan an investigation to make a small change to their string telephones and predicting what effect this may have on the sound.

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Kestrels

In English this week, Kestrels have been focussing on performance poetry. The children had the choice of performing their own nonsense poem or the Jabberwocky. They worked extremely hard on trying to learn the poem off by heart. The children then recorded each other reading their poems aloud and these will be available for you to watch via a secure link which will be emailed to you in due course.

In maths, we learned how to multiply different types of fractions (unit, non-unit and mixed numbers) by an integer. This involved the children using all the skills of multiplication and division they have learned over the past few weeks in order to answer different types of questions.

In science, Y5&6 carried out the kitchen roll investigation they designed last week. It was so interesting to see the different methods that the children had come up with and how they adapted these as they encountered unexpected problems. The children will be analysing their results next week in order to draw their scientific conclusions.

This week saw the culmination of all the children's hard work and rehearsals for Young Voices. I'm sure you will agree, the concert was amazing and a real spectacle to behold. It is such a joy and privilege to be able to provide your children with this experience which will provide them with life long memories. They sang and danced their hearts out and were such a credit to you and the school.  Same time next year?

Merlins

This week in Merlins class we finalised our narratives based on the themes of Alice in Wonderland. The children have worked so hard on their writing, and I am very proud of what they have produced. We have been practising reading each chapter aloud with expression and intonation and have recorded ourselves reading our stories. These recordings will go into a class audio book which will be shared on the school website very soon. 

In maths, we have been converting between miles, km and other metric and imperial units. 

In geography, we have been exploring the three different types of work that are carried out by people around the UK. We distinguished between primary, secondary, and tertiary activities. We then studied a map of the local area and discussed the many jobs that people may carry out in the village. We were able to categorise these activities. 

We had a fantastic day out at Young Voices on Thursday. The children performed with such enthusiasm and passion and were a credit to the school and their parents. We are already looking forward to next year's concert.

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